Baylor faculty members have a familial bond, and there's no reason that has to stop when they retire. In fact, Baylor's support program for retired faculty helps keep them connected to each other and the university.

Baylor's Retired Professors and Administrators Program (RPAP) has new leadership this year, after Bill Dube, director of Baylor's Endowed Scholarship Program in University Development, took over as director of the program last fall. He is only the fourth director since the program's founding in 1973.

The program was the brainchild of then-university president Dr. Herbert Reynolds. He thought the idea was so important that, after discussing it with P. D. Browne, who had retired after teaching religion and math at Baylor, Reynolds set up an office in Pat Neff Hall that very day and appointed Browne as director. Browne was followed by Dr. W J Wimpee, who was a religion professor and university chaplain.

Then Dr. Rufus Spain (pictured right with Bill Dube), a retired history professor, took over as director in 1998, and he continues to be involved with the production of the RPAP's monthly newsletter.

Dube said he realizes that he has big shoes to fill. "If I can keep pace with what Dr. Spain has been doing, I'll be pretty happy," he said.

Spain taught at Baylor from 1957 to 1988, retiring as professor emeritus. After that, he continued to teach for ten years on a part-time basis. Now that he is retiring for the third time—at age ninety—he plans to stick with it, he said.

Dube is a 1968 Baylor graduate and earned an MBA in 1972. In between those two degrees, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He started his business career in Dallas, but quickly came back to Baylor, joining the staff of the financial aid office in 1973. He served in several different roles in the financial aid, scholarships, and admissions areas of the university. He was named director of the Endowed Scholarship Program in 1997 and added the duties of the RPAP directorship in October 2012.

Officially recognized as the general alumni organization of Baylor University,
the Baylor Alumni Association is an independent legal entity.